3 - Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
4 - Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
5 - Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
6 - Obtaining related software
9 Installation instructions for GNU Midnight Commander
10 ----------------------------------------------------
12 The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
13 various system-dependent variables used during compilation, and creates
14 the makefiles. It also creates a file `config.status' that you can run
15 in the future to recreate the current configuration.
17 To compile this package:
19 1. Configure the package for your system.
21 Normally, you just `cd' to the directory containing the package's source
22 code and type `./configure'. If you're using `csh' on an old version of
23 SystemV, you might need to type `sh configure' instead to prevent `csh'
24 from trying to execute `configure' itself. Under AIX, you may need to
25 use ksh instead of sh.
27 Running `configure' takes a while. While it is running, it prints some
28 messages that tell what it is doing. If you don't want to see any
29 messages, run `configure' with the `--quiet' option.
31 To compile the package in a different directory than the one containing
32 the source code, you must use a version of `make' supporting the `VPATH'
33 variable, such as GNU `make'. Change to the directory where you want
34 the object files and executables to go and run the `configure' script
35 with the full path. If for some reason `configure' cannot find the
36 source code directory, run `configure' with the option `--srcdir=DIR',
37 where DIR is the directory that contains the source code.
39 By default, `make install' will install the package's files in
40 `/usr/local/bin', `/usr/local/man', etc. You can specify an
41 installation prefix other than `/usr/local' by giving `configure' the
42 option `--prefix=PATH'.
44 You can specify separate installation prefixes for architecture specific
45 files and architecture-independent files. If you give `configure' the
46 option `--exec-prefix=PATH', the package will use PATH as the prefix for
47 installing binary programs and libraries. Data files and documentation
48 will still use the regular prefix. Normally, all files are installed
49 using the same prefix.
51 If compiled on GNU/Linux, Midnight Commander detects if you have the gpm
52 library installed. If you installed the gpm mouse library in a
53 non-standard place, you will need to use the --with-gpm-mouse flag with
54 the directory base where you installed the gpm package.
56 `configure' recognizes the following options (the list may be
57 incomplete, use `configure --help' to get the full list):
60 Print a summary of the options to `configure' and exit.
64 Do not print messages saying which checks are being made.
67 Print the results of the checks.
70 Print the version of Autoconf used to generate the `configure'
74 Configure GNU Midnight Commander to be compiled without the
75 built-in file editor. The built-in editor is compiled in by
79 On systems that use the ext2 or ext3 file system and have the
80 libext2fs library available, this option adds support for
81 recovering deleted files (the undel virtual file system).
84 Use this flag to disable gpm mouse support (e.g. if you want to
85 use mouse only on X terminals).
87 `--with-mmap', `--without-mmap'
88 Force using or not using the mmap function. It is currently used
89 in the internal viewer. `--with-mmap' may be useful on some
90 versions of AIX where the `configure' script decides that mmap is
91 broken, but it's actually suitable for the internal viewer.
93 `--with-subshell[=optional]', `--without-subshell'
94 The subshell support is by default turned on, you can disable
95 this by using the --without-subshell option. If you pass the
96 =optional parameter, then the subshell support is turned off by
97 default. To turn it on, specify the `-U' option to the program.
100 By default, the Midnight Commander tries to connect to the X Window
101 System events to query the status of the keyboard modifiers, such
102 as Control, Shift and Alt, when invoked in a terminal emulator
103 under X11. This is necessary (but not always sufficient) to
104 recognize some optional but handy key combinations like Ctrl-Home
105 and Shift-Cursor keys. Use `--without-x' if the dependency on
106 X11 libraries is not desired.
109 This option disables the Virtual File System switch code in the
110 Midnight Commander and uses the standard file system calls for
111 file access. If you specify this option, you won't get the
112 transparent access to archives and remote directories.
115 This option enables mcfs - a non-standard remote filesystem
116 designed specifically for the Midnight Commander. It also enables
117 a server for that filesystem, mcserv. Please note that the
118 implementation of mcfs is not optimized for speed. There may be
119 security issues with mcserv - don't run it if you don't need it.
122 This option enables remote VFS over the SMB protocol. A stripped
123 down version of samba distributed with the sources is compiled and
124 linked with the mc executable. It is recommended that you install
125 Samba client, since mc uses some files from Samba under certain
126 conditions. Please visit http://www.samba.org/ to learn more.
128 `--disable-largefile'
129 This option disables support for large files (2 gigabytes and more)
130 on the systems where file operations use 32-bit offsets by default,
131 but support for 64-bit offsets is available. May be useful for
132 slow processors and embedded systems.
134 You may also tell configure which screen library you want to use with
135 the Midnight Commander. The configure script will use S-Lang as
136 default, and prefers an already installed S-Lang library over the
137 included one, but you can override this by using the following flag
138 (please note that since S-Lang is default, it is tested better than
141 `--with-screen={slang|mcslang|ncurses}'
142 Choose the library used to manage interaction with the terminal.
143 `slang' means S-Lang library already installed on the system,
144 `mcslang' means S-Lang library included with the sources of
145 GNU Midnight Commander, `ncurses' means ncurses library already
146 installed on the system. The installed S-Lang library is used
147 by default if found, otherwise the included S-Lang library is
151 If the included S-Lang library is used, this option forces it to
152 use the termcap database, as opposed to the default terminfo
155 On systems that require unusual options for compilation or linking that
156 the package's `configure' script does not know about, you can give
157 `configure' initial values for variables by placing them in the command
160 ./configure CC='gcc -traditional' LIBS=-lposix
162 Here are the variables that you might want to override when running
166 C compiler program. The default is `gcc' if found, otherwise `cc'.
169 The default flags used to build the program.
172 Program to use to install files. The default is `install' if you
173 have it, `cp' otherwise.
175 For these variables, any value given in the command line is added to the
176 value that `configure' decides to use:
179 Libraries to link with, in the form `-lfoo -lbar...'.
182 Linker flags, e.g. -L<lib dir> if you have libraries in a
183 nonstandard directory <lib dir>
186 C/C++ preprocessor flags, e.g. -I<include dir> if you have
187 headers in a nonstandard directory <include dir>
189 If you need to do unusual things to compile the package, we encourage
190 you to figure out how `configure' could check whether to do them, and
191 mail diffs or instructions to the address given in the README so we can
192 include them in the next release.
194 2. Type `make' to compile the package.
196 3. Type `make install' to install programs, data files, and the
197 documentation. On GNU/Linux the console screen saver is installed as
200 4. You can remove the program binaries and object files from the source
201 directory by typing `make clean'. If you want to clean the source tree
202 completely, so that it contains only those files that should be packaged
203 in the archive, issue `make distclean'. If you've run configure in a
204 different directory than the source tree, distclean won't remove your
205 *.o and linked programs in that directory.
207 5. GNU Midnight Commander allows you to stay in the last current
208 directory after exiting MC. This is done with a shell function, the man
209 page has more information about this.
211 The file `configure.in' is used to create `configure' by a program
212 called `autoconf'. You only need it if you want to regenerate
213 `configure' using a newer version of `autoconf'.
216 Where to get more information on GNU Midnight Commander
217 -------------------------------------------------------
219 There are two mailing lists for the program:
221 mc@gnome.org: Discussion on GNU Midnight Commander file manager.
222 mc-devel@gnome.org: Discussion between the developers of the program.
224 To subscribe to the mailing lists, visit their respective pages:
226 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc/
227 http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/mc-devel/
230 Notes about GNU Midnight Commander installation
231 -----------------------------------------------
233 GNU Midnight Commander has been run in the following configurations:
240 mips-dec-{open,net}bsd1.0
250 mc88110-aviion-dgux5.4
255 Midnight Commander is written in a portable manner and uses GNU Autoconf
256 for configuration, so it is expected to compile without changes on many
257 other operating systems.
259 You will need an ANSI C Compiler (such as GCC) and glib library to
260 compile the source. GNU Midnight Commander now comes with the S-Lang
261 screen manager, a fast screen manager, but you may want to use the
262 already installed S-Lang or ncurses library.
264 If you insist on using ncurses, it's recommended to use ncurses 4.1 and
265 above, since the older versions don't support resizing in the xterm
268 GNU Midnight Commander comes with the mouse support on xterms and in the
269 Linux console. In order to take advantage of the mouse support on the
270 Linux console you will need the gpm mouse server (see the section
271 "Obtaining related software" in this file).
273 Once you get gpm, compile it and install it, then you will have to
274 specify the `--with-gpm-mouse' flag to the configure program if you
275 installed it in a non-standard directory. If you installed the gpm
276 package under /usr or /usr/local, you don't need to specify this flag;
277 configure will find gpm for you. The support for mice on xterms is
280 We are working on further enhancements to the program, but we're not
281 sure which ones must go first. If you would like to point us in the
282 Right Direction we will be glad to hear from you (you could check the
283 file TODO included with this distribution for the current projects).
285 If you happen to find a feature that doesn't do what you expect, please
286 write to mc@gnome.org telling as much as you can about the problem
287 you're experiencing. Please don't send personal messages to the
291 Obtaining related software
292 --------------------------
297 The only "hard" dependency of GNU Midnight Commander is glib. You can
300 ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/gtk/
302 Note that only versions 1.2.x and 2.0.x are supported.
307 There are many incomplete terminal databases out there, however, a
308 complete terminfo is bundled with ncurses. (It is simple to generate
309 the termcap database using the infocmp utility in ncurses).
311 Some terminfo data are included with the mc distribution (lib/*.ti).
312 Particularly linux, xterm and vt100. Use e.g. ''tic linux.ti'' to use
315 If you want to run mc on xterm/color_xterm/ansi_xterm (not rxvt), then
316 you might read lib/README.xterm for further information.
321 GNU Midnight Commander can use the included version of S-Lang, but you
322 can get the latest version here:
324 http://www.s-lang.org/
326 Alternatively, you can use ncurses:
328 http://www.gnu.org/software/ncurses/ncurses.html
333 The general purpose mouse (gpm) daemon is available from
335 ftp://arcana.linux.it/pub/gpm/
340 If your C compiler is not powerful enough to compile GNU Midnight
341 Commander, you should report is as a bug to the GNU Midnight Commander
342 team. Sometimes there is no solution than upgrading to a modern and
343 free compiler - GCC (Compiler Collection):